In yesterday's fellowship hour, we were reminded by novice Br. Elisha Therese that we are called to love. This means loving our Creator, ourselves and our neighbors, and praying for those who would harm us.
When I consider what would drive a person do to a hateful and evil thing, I wonder how badly such a person has been wounded in their life, and how much pain and suffering they carry around with them, most times without even knowing it. It makes me very sad to think that some people carry such burdens and that the only way they know how to deal with them is to lash out at others, in fear and anguish.
When I look at the world at large, I see the same anguish and hatred being perpetuated repeatedly, in many different forms such as the fight for equal rights, access to healthcare, starvation, and most especially war, both for profit and for religious ideals.
I often ask myself how to bandage the wounds of the world. The answer is quite simple in logic, but very difficult in its execution; to cultivate peace and act with love.
You're probably thinking, how do we do such a thing in the midst of all of this hatred?
Every small act of kindness cultivates peace, whether it is a smile, holding the door for someone or providing ears to hear them; these small acts cultivate both inner and outer peace in us and the people we come into contact with.
So, the first step toward following our Creator's command to love is to seek peace, first within ourselves, second within our communities and third in the world at large. Love will naturally follow, but we must work harder at loving one another than simply being nice to one another.
Loving one another is a great beast to slay; people always seem to be trying their best to resist both the love of their creator and the love given to them by their fellow human beings. It is my belief that this is caused by a cultural programming of "you're not good enough, rich enough or pretty enough unless you buy the right car, smoke the right cigarette and believe in the right image of God".
It takes much, much more work to love a person than to simply make peace with them. But this the work that has been set before us by our Creator, and must be attended to with the same enthusiasm as seeking peace.
As monastics, we spend our lives learning to do this single task. Because of our dedication to learning to love as God loves, other fruits of the spirit spring up naturally and with seemingly great ease. For example, I do not debate on whether to open a door for, or to smile at a stranger, I simply do it because it is the peaceful and loving thing to do.
But what about those who have wronged us? What do we do with the people who have hurt us so badly that we find it nigh impossible to truly forgive them, let alone love them?
We are taught through the Gospels that we are to pray for them and to offer them the peace of God. Their actions are a reflection of their heart. As I mentioned before, a person who does an evil or hurtful thing must be hurting inside, and so we must pray for our Creator to heal them. If we approach the situation from this point of view, forgiveness is not only possible, but it becomes easy.
I encourage you to take ten minutes each day and reflect on who is hurting in your life. You can probably guess correctly if you look for the warning signs; anger, manipulative, judgemental and dishonest behaviors, and gossip, just to name a few. These are the people who need forgiving, who need love, who thirst for peace.
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